I. Financial Metaverse : tokens, derivatives and other synthetic assets 1
II. Market Finance 15
II-1. Batesian mimicry and other risk management techniques 15
II-2. Two main risk management frameworks 18
II-3. Pyramidal Markets 22
II-4. The Financial Metaverse 25
II-5. Synthetic Assets 29
II-6. Convergence 34
II-7. Basis risk 38
II-8. A global network of anchors 41
II-9. Financial benchmarks 44
II-10. Metafinance as a metalanguage 46
II-11. The impact of synthetic assets on the cash market 49
II-12. Synthetic assets dominate satellite cash markets 56
II-13. Metafinance as a convention 58
Bibliography 60
III. Synthetic assets play a standardisation role 63
III-1. Standard for coordination 63
III-2. Standardisation of asset specifications 68
III-3. Abstract markets 71
III-4. Gulliver’s travels 76
III-5. The quest for a core carbon credit contract 78
III-6. A (ridiculously) short classification of sovereign debt 89
III-7. The unbearable lightness of financial categories 95
III-8. Contract standardisation 100
Bibliography 104
IV. The economics of financial infrastructure 107
IV-1. The economics of financial infrastructure 107
IV-2. Path dependant benchmarks 110
IV-3. Impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on the fungibility of Gold 116
IV-4. The war scars of the credit derivative documentation 127
IV-5. Why history matters ? 138
Bibliography 142
V. The motivations of synthetic assets 145
V-1. The motivations of synthetic assets 145
V-2. Benchmarks should be based on prices 146
V-3. The VDNKh 147
V-4. Mutability 150
V-5. Successions 152
V-6. What is the price of crude oil ? 158
V-7. Mutations in the price of oil 165
V-8. Passive investing and index replication 171
V-9. Realisation 176
V-10. The life of Ni 183
V-11. Dealing with the corporate soap opera 190
V-12. Counterparty credit risk 194
Bibliography 197
VI. Convention for valuation 199
VI-1. Quantifying synthetic assets 199
VI-2. The philosophy of financial modelling 200
VI-3. Financial singularity 203
VI-4. Resonance 205
VI-5. Cyborg market 210
VI-6. Model or prophecy ? 213
VI-7. Performativity 219
VI-8. What drives marketplace acceptance of pricing models ? 222
VI-9. Wandering in interest rates modelling 225
VI-10. CreditGrades 230
VI-11. Metalist versus institutional 233
Bibliography 237
Conclusion 239
Glossary 251
Index 257